People infected with HIV usually look and feel perfectly healthy for a long time after being infected. It can take 10 years or more before a person shows symptoms of HIV. It may even take much longer for people taking HIV medications. This is why it is so important to get tested for HIV regularly, especially if you have had unprotected or needle-sharing sex. HIV treatment can also help you stay healthy and can reduce or even eliminate the risk of passing HIV to other people through sex.
During the first 2 to 4 weeks after getting HIV, you may experience fever, pain, and discomfort. These flu-like symptoms are your body’s first reaction to the infection. During this stage, there is a large amount of virus in your body, so it is very easy to pass it on to other people. HIV symptoms only last a few weeks, and after that, you usually have no symptoms for years. However, you can pass HIV to other people whether or not you have symptoms or feel sick.
Late symptoms of HIV/AIDS
HIV destroys immune system cells called CD4 cells or T cells. If you don’t have CD4 cells, it is very difficult for your body to fight the disease. This makes you more likely to get seriously ill from infections that wouldn’t normally harm you. Over time, the damage HIV does to your immune system causes AIDS.
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